In recent years, there has been a substantial research effort directed to reducing or eliminating the fat in various water continuous food products, such as ice cream, pourable dressings, salad dressing, mayonnaise and cheese. To produce these fat reduced products, many fat mimetic materials have been developed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,734,287 to Singer, et al. describes a proteinaceous, water-dispersible macrocolloid comprising substantially non-aggregated particles of dairy whey protein. U.S. Pat. No. 4,911,946 to Singer, et al. discloses a fat substitute which comprises water-dispersable macrocolloid particles having a substantially spheroidal shape and a particle size distribution effective to impart the substantially smooth organoleptic character of an oil-and-water emulsion. The particles are produced by subjecting carbohydrate materials such as quinoa starch, calcium alginate, cross-linked dextran, gellan gum, konjac, mannan, chitin, schizophyllan and chitosan to high shear forces by introducing a carbohydrate solution into a highly turbulent reaction zone. This treatment produces gelled microparticles having the spheroidal shape and size described in this patent. U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,674 to Chen, et al. describes fat mimetic materials which are produced by subjecting fibers of a polysaccharide gum and various protein sources to high shear forces to microfragment the particles.
While numerous fat mimetic materials have been produced, such fat mimetic materials are almost universally used in a water continuous product, such as a pourable dressing, mayonnaise or salad dressing. Only recently have attempts been made to produce a non-fat substitute for fat continuous systems, such as butter and margarine. U.S. Pat. No. 4,956,193 to Cain, et al. describes a non-fat edible plastic dispersion which is a substitute for butter or margarine. The edible plastic dispersion of the Cain, et al. patent includes at least two condensed phases, at least one of which is continuous. The dispersion includes two gel forming compositions (A) and (B). Gel forming composition A contains 1-8 times the critical concentration of a gelling agent (a) selected from the group consisting of gelatin, kappa carrageenan, iota carrageenan, alginate, agar, gellan, pectin and mixtures thereof. Gel forming composition B also contains 1-8 times the critical concentration of a gelling agent (b) selected from the group consisting of gelling starch, denatured whey protein, denatured bovine serum protein, denatured soy protein, microcrystalline cellulose and mixtures thereof.
The present invention is directed to providing non-fat or low-fat substitutes for fat-containing spreads, such as margarine. The present invention is also directed to providing a non-fat or low-fat substitute for margarine products which are known in the art as being "squeezable"; meaning that the product can be dispensed by squeezing a plastic container containing the viscous margarine. Such products are available in the marketplace today containing high levels of fat of about 64%.